A small PySide6 desktop application for designing matching wire-wrap socket labels and 3D-printable tags.
If you enjoy wire-wrapping prototype or one-off circuits—and perhaps find spending countless hours with a wire-wrap tool strangely therapeutic—you have probably discovered an unfortunate fact: the wire, sockets, and hand tools are still fairly easy to find, but the little identification tags that fit over DIP sockets have all but disappeared.
That was a problem worth fixing.
To support my own obsession with hardware development, prototyping, and tinkering, I created Wire-Wrap Tag Designer: a simple set of tools for producing both the plastic socket tags and the printed identification labels that go on top of them. The finished tags can show the component ID and pin numbers right beside the corresponding socket pins, making it much easier to keep your place while wiring a crowded vectorboard or Veroboard.
The plastic tags are generated as STL models and can be printed on an ordinary 3D printer. Because the pin holes are small, a well-tuned printer helps—especially extrusion, pressure advance, and retraction settings. If your printer is feeling less cooperative, you may occasionally need to clean out a hole with a small drill bit. Even then, that is often preferable to repeatedly counting socket pins across a densely populated board.
While the plastic tags are printing, you can print the matching labels. Use ordinary paper and adhesive, self-adhesive label stock, or common peel-and-stick sheets such as Avery-compatible labels.
Set the part ID, DIP pin count, and pin-row width, inspect the live previews, then generate a dimensionally accurate label sheet and matching STL model with a single click.
The application running on Linux with a 16-pin label preview; the screenshot does not demonstrate printing or STL generation.
- Simple three-field setup for the most common workflow
- Live label, print-sheet, and isometric tag previews
- Standard 300, 400, 600, and 900 mil DIP widths
- A4 and US Letter output at exact physical size
- Avery-compatible 5160/8160 through 5164/8164 Letter-sheet presets
- Automatic or forced 90-degree tag rotation within pre-cut labels
- Multi-page PDF and SVG label sheets
- Matching SVG, PDF, OpenSCAD, and STL geometry
- Adjustable label margins, pin holes, number spacing, text, and colors
- Adjustable tag thickness, corners, notch, and optional center window
- Persistent settings and a backward-compatible command-line tool
- Light, dark, and system-matched application themes
OpenSCAD is optional if you only need SVG, PDF, or editable .scad output.
| Platform | GUI and print output | STL export | Setup tools |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Supported | OpenSCAD on PATH | Bash |
| macOS | Supported | PATH or standard OpenSCAD.app locations |
Bash |
| Windows 10/11 | Supported | PATH, Program Files, LocalAppData, or Scoop | PowerShell and CMD |
Every push and pull request runs the Python, CLI, and headless GUI tests on current GitHub-hosted Linux, macOS, and Windows runners.
For the quickest Python installation, download the wheel from the latest GitHub release, create a virtual environment, and install the downloaded file:
python -m venv .venv
. .venv/bin/activate # Windows PowerShell: .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1
python -m pip install ./wirewrap_tag_designer-1.0.1-py3-none-any.whl
wirewrap-tag-designerRun these commands in the folder containing the downloaded wheel. This is a Python package, not a standalone installer. OpenSCAD is only needed to export STL files.
Clone the repository, then use the setup command for your platform.
git clone https://github.com/Monotoba/Wirewrap-tag_toolset.git
cd Wirewrap-tag_toolset
./scripts/setup.shFor an application-only environment:
./scripts/setup.sh --runtimeFrom PowerShell:
git clone https://github.com/Monotoba/Wirewrap-tag_toolset.git
Set-Location Wirewrap-tag_toolset
.\scripts\setup.ps1Or from Command Prompt:
git clone https://github.com/Monotoba/Wirewrap-tag_toolset.git
cd Wirewrap-tag_toolset
scripts\setup.cmdUse -Mode runtime with setup.ps1, or runtime with setup.cmd, for an application-only environment. All setup variants create a local .venv/; development mode installs the project editably with its test tools.
From the repository:
./scripts/run.shOn Windows, use either:
.\scripts\run.ps1scripts\run.cmdAn editable installation also provides:
wirewrap-tag-designerThe normal workflow is:
- Enter a device or part ID such as
IC12. - Select an even DIP pin count.
- Select the pin-row width.
- Choose an output folder.
- Click Generate label + printable page + STL.
Use Settings → Design & print settings (or Ctrl+,) for less common adjustments such as label extension, number placement, font size, orientation, colors, page layout, pre-cut label stock, or tag thickness. Choose Settings → Appearance to use the system theme or explicitly select light or dark mode.
In Design & print settings → Print page, choose a stock preset for the common Letter-size layouts 5160/8160 (30 labels), 5161/8161 (20), 5162/8162 (14), 5163/8163 (10), or 5164/8164 (6). The same tag is repeated up to the requested copy count and additional PDF/SVG pages are created when necessary.
Auto rotation preserves the tag's exact dimensions and turns it 90° only when the unrotated tag does not fit the individual adhesive label. You can force either orientation. Dashed stock boundaries appear in the live preview only; they are omitted from exported SVG and PDF files.
For a part named IC12, the application can produce:
| File | Purpose |
|---|---|
IC12_label.svg |
One label at exact physical size |
IC12_letter_sheet.svg |
Printable label sheet |
IC12_letter_sheet.pdf |
Print-ready PDF, including additional pages when needed |
IC12_tag.scad |
Editable parametric tag model |
IC12_tag.stl |
Model ready for a slicer |
IC12_settings.json |
Complete record of the design settings |
Important
Print PDFs using Actual Size or 100%. Disable “Fit to page” so the label remains dimensionally accurate.
The label command-line interface remains available through scripts/labels.sh:
./scripts/labels.sh \
--pins 16 \
--width 300 \
--id IC12 \
-o IC12.svgCreate an A4 sheet containing 24 labels:
./scripts/labels.sh \
--pins 16 \
--width 300 \
--id IC12 \
--paper A4 \
--copies 24 \
-o IC12_A4.svgCreate an Avery 5160/8160-compatible sheet, rotating long tags when needed:
./scripts/labels.sh \
--pins 40 \
--width 300 \
--id CPU1 \
--sheet-template "Avery 5160 / 8160 (30 per sheet)" \
--copies 30 \
-o CPU1_5160.svgAfter an editable installation, the same command is available as wirewrap-labels.
On Windows, replace ./scripts/labels.sh with .\scripts\labels.ps1 or scripts\labels.cmd.
The application searches PATH first, followed by common macOS and Windows installation locations. If OpenSCAD is installed somewhere unusual, set OPENSCAD_PATH to the full executable path before launching the application:
export OPENSCAD_PATH=/custom/path/to/openscad$env:OPENSCAD_PATH = "C:\Custom\OpenSCAD\openscad.exe"The default setup includes the test dependency. Run the suite with:
./scripts/test.sh -qRun all development checks with:
./scripts/check.shWindows equivalents are .\scripts\test.ps1 -q and .\scripts\check.ps1, with matching .cmd wrappers.
The repository follows a standard src/ package layout:
src/wirewrap_tag_designer/
├── core.py # geometry and file generation; no Qt dependency
├── gui.py # PySide6 desktop interface
├── cli.py # label command-line interface
└── __main__.py # python -m wirewrap_tag_designer
scripts/
├── *.sh # Linux and macOS commands
├── *.ps1 # native Windows PowerShell commands
└── *.cmd # Windows Command Prompt wrappers
See CONTRIBUTING.md for contribution guidance and README_wirewrap_tags.md for the detailed control reference.
Security reports should use GitHub's private vulnerability reporting flow described in SECURITY.md. Community participation is governed by CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md, and release history is recorded in CHANGELOG.md.
The current source and v1.0.1 distribution use the BSD 2-Clause License, which requires preserving its copyright notice and license terms. The v1.0.0 release remains under the MIT terms included in that release.